State Sen. Ed Hernandez is asking California’s top prosecutor to investigate the City of Industry after officials suddenly fired the watchdog tasked with overseeing efforts to prevent corruption.

Industry’s City Council terminated former Attorney General William Lockyer’s contract in a closed-door meeting Jan. 11. Two days earlier, the reform monitor had spoken critically about what he believed was a prominent local family’s attempt to stall a housing project that would add new voters to Industry’s tightly-controlled electorate.

Lockyer’s was the first of three firings this month. Also let go this week were City Clerk William Morrow and Anthony Bouza, an attorney working on the mammoth Tres Hermanos solar-farm project. An attempt Thursday to fire Industry’s City Manager Paul Philips, however, failed to find enough votes among City Council members.

“I think they wanted to silence individuals who are telling them what they should or shouldn’t do,” Hernandez said in an interview Friday. “There has been a history of this city continually having a company-town mentality. Here, I thought there was a chance they could change that, and I am disappointed that did not happen.”

Industry – with a population of 200 and a projected balance of $1.5 billion as of June 2018 – did not disclose the firings until an attorney representing the Southern California News Group demanded city officials comply with state open-government laws.

Hernandez, D-West Covina, is requesting a meeting with California Attorney General Xavier Becerra next week to outline his concerns. He wants to see Industry build new homes that would be sold to independent owners with no ties to city officials. The project at the center of the controversy was pitched to be built on city-owned land with the city eventually playing landlord to its future electorate.

“Hopefully, with the time I have left in the Legislature, I can make a difference to change the culture in the City of Industry,” he said. Hernandez terms out of office later this year.

The state senator previously authored a bill that would force reforms on Industry, but he withdrew it when Industry pledged to carry out its own reforms under Lockyer’s watch.

Hernandez said he has been disappointed with the slow progress over the last two years, but he held out hope — until Lockyer’s firing.

Specifically, Lockyer was hired to oversee compliance with the audit’s recommendations and to ensure the city, which owns about half the housing stock inside its borders, developed a fair and independent selection process for its tenants. Currently, Industry rents roughly two dozen homes to City Council members, their friends and family members at heavily discounted rates of $600 to $700 a month. Those occupants did not have to file an application or have their incomes verified.

“They control the voting pool and they don’t want that changed,” he said Jan. 9 after Industry’s planning commissioners refused to vote on the project. “The town can’t survive ethically unless they expand the number of voters in the community to not have one interest be dominant.”

In a closed-session meeting two days later, the City Council voted 3-2 to end Lockyer’s contract. Industry City Manager Paul Philips and City Attorney Jamie Casso declined to disclose the reason for the any of the firings.

Casso said the final decision to let Lockyer go was discussed behind closed doors under an exception to the state open-meetings law known as “anticipated litigation.” While the city did not receive a written claim or threat, he said, a legal analysis showed a potential threat to the city.

Discussing the matter could “put the city in a worst position,” Casso said, declining to provide details about the threat.

Lockyer said he was originally asked to resign – and was then terminated when he refused. Council members asked why he didn’t disclose a marijuana distribution business he is invested in.

“There’s no conflict,” Lockyer said. “We don’t do any business, or contemplate any business, in or around Industry.”

Lockyer said he was not present when the vote occurred and did not know why they decided to terminate him. He believes his firing arose from his criticism of the Perez family.

An attorney for the Perez family previously denied Lockyer’s allegations.

“There is no connection between the Perez family and action taken — or not taken — by the Planning Commission or the City Council, and to claim otherwise is irresponsible and defamatory,” Stephen Larson, an attorney for the family, said in a statement released Jan. 11.

On Thursday, Industry’s City Council voted in closed session to fire Morrow, the city clerk, and Bouza, the attorney for the Industry Public Utility Commission. Morrow’s hiring was previously criticized because of his ties to former state legislator Frank Hill, an influential contractor working in the city, and because he had no experience as a city clerk. Though originally hired to oversee Industry’s then-upcoming election, he stayed on after the election was canceled.

Morrow also serves as the attorney for Industry’s housing commission but has not been dismissed from that role at this time.

Bouza was part of Industry’s efforts to build a massive solar farm on more than 2,500 acres of ranch land nestled between Diamond Bar and Chino Hills. He was responsible for negotiations with San Gabriel Valley Water and Power, the mysterious limited liability corporation behind the proposal. The project, on which Industry has already spent more than $14 million, was challenged in lawsuits by Chino Hills and Diamond Bar.

It’s unclear if Bouza’s dismissal will have any affect on the plans. If the project does not break ground, the city will forfeit all of the money paid out so far for the preliminary work, according to a lease agreement.

Jason Henry is an investigative reporter with the Southern California News Group. Raised in Ohio, Jason began his career at a suburban daily near Cleveland before moving to California in 2013. He is a self-identified technophile, data nerd and wannabe drone pilot.